The general construction and operation of an ink-jet print cartridge using reticulated polyurethane foam is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,295 entitled "Thermal Ink Jet Pen Body Construction Having Improved Ink Storage and Feed Capacity" by Baker et al. issued Sep. 13, 1988.
Prior print cartridges have been designed to be loaded into and removed from ink-jet printers either vertically or with an inclined arcuate motion. Such a procedure has proven to be satisfactory as long as vertical access to the printer is provided. This has meant, however, that nothing could be permanently stacked on top of the printer.
Further, previous top loading ink-jet printer designs have fostered an increasing growth in printer height so that with each new printer design the profile of the product grew and grew.
Finally, there is a constant need to reduce the cost and the development time for new printer products. This has caused product designers to leverage existing designs and use parts from current products when developing new products for the market place. This desire to reduce start-up costs also has lead product designers to utilize existing tooling and manufacturing lines as well.
Thus, it is apparent from the foregoing that although there are many satisfactory ink-jet print cartridge designs, there is a need for an approach that permits the front loading of print cartridges into printers, reduces the profile of the cartridge itself, uses parts from products currently in production, and utilizes existing manufacturing lines.